PARAGRAPHS
These paragraphs about King Lear come from you and your peers. Note not only the content, but also the structure of these points. Use them (both the content and the structure--topic sentences followed by well-developed, ordered support) to inform your own preparation for commentary on this play.
In King Lear, the character-driven conflict between public perception and self-knowledge develops the two storylines. Although Lear commits political suicide by relinquishing all his territory and crown to his two daughters Goneril and Regan, he still perceives himself to be a wise and influential ruler. In reality, the two women view their father as an irrational, senile nuisance that they must overpower in order to maintain control of the kingdom. Similarly, in the subplot, Edmund is simply seen as Gloucester’s illegitimate second-born son, but he eventually manipulates the circumstances so that he is perceived to be a valiant young man capable of leadership, even though Edmund sacrifices both his brother and father in order to achieve his goals. This divide between public perception and self-knowledge is the fuel that ignites the tragic inferno which is King Lear.
PARAGRAPHS
These paragraphs about King Lear come from you and your peers. Note not only the content, but also the structure of these points. Use them (both the content and the structure--topic sentences followed by well-developed, ordered support) to inform your own preparation for commentary on this play.
In King Lear, the character-driven conflict between public perception and self-knowledge develops the two storylines. Although Lear commits political suicide by relinquishing all his territory and crown to his two daughters Goneril and Regan, he still perceives himself to be a wise and influential ruler. In reality, the two women view their father as an irrational, senile nuisance that they must overpower in order to maintain control of the kingdom. Similarly, in the subplot, Edmund is simply seen as Gloucester’s illegitimate second-born son, but he eventually manipulates the circumstances so that he is perceived to be a valiant young man capable of leadership, even though Edmund sacrifices both his brother and father in order to achieve his goals. This divide between public perception and self-knowledge is the fuel that ignites the tragic inferno which is King Lear.